Amazon Fire TV Stick Guide

Last updated: 06MAR2024 (see Changelog for details)

The Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max is a great little streaming device, and for that use case alone it’s a pretty good deal. But did you know that it can play a surprising amount of retro games too, without any need to modify the device in any way? This guide will show you how to get up and running with your favorite retro systems with just a few tools.

Table of Contents
Which systems can you play on the Fire Stick?
Build your ROM library
Recommended accessories
Download emulator apps
Load up your games
Set up RetroArch
Other notes

Changelog

Which systems can you play on the Fire TV Stick?

Before jumping into this project, you might be curious about which games you can actually play on your device. Here is a general list of systems that can be played on the Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max. Other Fire Sticks (like the Lite, Hd, and 4K models) may not be as performant. Those noted with an asterisk cannot play every game at full speed, and so performance may vary.

Build your ROM library

If you haven’t already, I recommend building a ROM library of your favorite games to play on the Fire Stick. ROM file sources will not be shared on this website.

When getting ROM files, I recommend using the “No-Intro” naming convention, which is the standard naming used for ROM sets within RetroArch and other emulation communities. By using no-intro naming, you will be more likely to get box art automatically added when you load up your games and scrape their media. If you have a question as to how a game should be named, I recommend checking out the Libretro thumbnails directory. If your game name matches the thumbnail name found in this directory, chances are that it will properly download the media for it.

Additionally, an important component of a ROM library is maintaining BIOS files. BIOS files are system files necessary for some emulators (GBA, Sega CD, or PS1), and are helpful in improving accuracy with other systems. These files are copyrighted so you are on your own to find them, but a quick search for a RetroArch bios pack should get you on your way.  Here is more information about BIOS files.

Here is a listing of the most common BIOS files:

GAME BOY (for boot logo):
gb_bios.bin

GAME BOY COLOR (for boot logo):
gbc_bios.bin

GAME BOY ADVANCE:
gba_bios.bin

NEO GEO:
neogeo.zip (place in your Neo Geo ROMs folder)

SEGA CD:
bios_CD_E.bin
bios_CD_J.bin
bios_CD_U.bin

TURBOGRAFX-CD:
syscard1.pce
syscard2.pce
syscard3.pce

PLAYSTATION 1:
scph5001.bin (there are many options)

Note that Dreamcast usually requires BIOS files, but the app I recommend for the Fire Stick (FlyCast) doesn’t need them.

Recommended accessories

In addition to the Fire Stick itself, I recommend three accessories: a game controller, a USB drive, and a USB splitter so that you can connect the USB drive to your Fire Stick.

As far as game controllers go, I have tested a few and found that the 8BitDo SN30 Pro is low-latency and also has a fitting retro nostalgic look and feel to it. It’s about $40 and well worth it — there are also newer versions with Hall-sensor sticks (reducing stick drift), or cool transparent green and purple colors. Note that when connecting it to your Fire Stick, pair the controller in X-Input (Windows) mode instead of D-Input (Android) mode. To do so, press the X and START button at the same time when starting up the controller the first time you pair it. After it’s paired, you just have to press the START button to reconnect to your Fire Stick.

While you can load games directly onto the Fire Stick, it only has 16GB of internal memory which can fill up really fast. Instead, I recommend using a USB drive that you can plug into a PC to load with games, which will simplify the process and give you plenty of space for all of your favorites. Note that you should use a USB 2.0 flash drive, because they have a lower power draw. If you try and use a fancy USB 3.0+ drive it will likely not have enough power to run the drive and the Fire Stick at the same time, since they will both be using the same power source (if you plug in a drive and it’s not recognized, this is probably the reason why). I recommend the SanDisk Cruze Blade, I’ve been using it for years for this exact purpose.

Finally, I recommend this micro USB splitter, which will allow you to plug in the USB drive and power the Fire Stick at the same time.

Download emulator apps

Loading emulators onto your Fire Stick is relatively easy, and this guide will make it even easier to grab those apps all at once. To start, on the Fire Stick go to the Apps section, then search for and install the app called “Downloader”. This is a web browser that will allow you to directly download and install games onto the Fire Stick.

Once installed, go into your Fire Stick settings > My Fire TV > About and then click on the name of your device (“Fire Stick 4K Max”) several times, until you see a pop-up that says you are now a developer. Go back to the My Fire TV settings, then choose Developer Options > Install Unknown Apps > Downloader and turn it ON. Now you are ready to install apps from the Downloader app.

You can either find each emulator on your own, or navigate to this guide using the Downloader app (just search for Retro Game Corps and then click on the Fire Stick guide on my front page). Here are direct links to each of the emulators I recommend:

RetroArch (most retro systems) -- main site
FlyCast (Sega Dreamcast) -- main site
PPSSPP (PlayStation Portable) -- main site
DraStic (Nintendo DS) -- main site

Note that each of these emulators are free. DraStic was previously a paid app only available via the Google Play Store, but as of March 2024, the developer has decided to make it available for free and is working to make it open source. There is no current distribution path or DraStic other than the Play Store, so I am linking to an archive of the latest version.

Load up your games

To load your games, you will first need to format your flash drive to FAT32. The easiest way to do this is to plug it into the Fire Stick, and it will prompt you to reformat the drive. When given the option, choose “External” storage, which lets you plug it directly into a PC afterwards. If you have a flash drive that is 32GB or smaller, it will already be in FAT32 format, so you won’t need to reformat it. If the flash drive is larger than 32GB and you still don’t get a prompt, go into the Fire settings, then choose My Fire TV > USB Drive and format it to External Store from there.

Now, go back to Settings > My Fire TV > USB Drive > Eject USB Drive. Once it is ejected, remove the flash drive from your Fire Stick and plug it into your PC. You should see a bunch of Android-related folder in the root directory; make a folder named “Games” and within that folder, make subfolders for your games (GB, GBC, NES, etc), and put your games inside. Once you have loaded up your games, you can eject it from your PC and plug it back into the Fire Stick.

Set up RetroArch

RetroArch will be your main app for most emulation, especially for those systems which are more retro-oriented. The app itself takes some time to get acquainted with, so I recommend my full RetroArch guide video above. It’s a little long, but it will break down each component of the emulation frontend.

The most important part will be to install the cores that work best for the Fire Stick. These are the cores that I recommend:

Recommended RetroArch cores:

Arcade (FinalBurn Neo) -- fighting games and beat'em ups
Arcade (MAME 2003-Plus) -- all-around arcade emulation
Commodore Amiga (PUAE)
DOS (DosBox-Pure)
NEC PCE/TG-16/PCE-CD/TG-CD (Beetle PCE)
Nintendo GB/GBC (Gambatte)
Nintendo GBA (mGBA)
Nintendo Virtual Boy (Beetle VB)
Nintendo NES (Nestopia UE)
Nintendo SNES (Snes9x Current)
Nintendo 64 (ParaLLEl)
ScummVM -- point-and-click PC games
Sega Master System/Genesis/CD (Genesis Plus GX)
Sega 32x (PicoDrive)
SNK Neo Geo (FinalBurn Neo)
Sony PlayStation (SwanStation)

From there, you will want to set your System folder to point to your BIOS folder, bind your controller keys, set your hotkeys, and create playlists, which are all explained in the video above. Here is a diagram of my recommended hotkey settings:

After that, you should be good to go: navigate to your playlist, pick a game, and start it up.

Other notes

• When setting up DraStic and PPSSPP, the app will ask for you to choose your game folder. Unfortunately, the Fire Stick controller and your game controller won’t let you properly navigate the file system to pick your folder, and it can be frustrating. I found the best method is to connect a bluetooth mouse and then click around until you find it (strangely, the mouse cursor won’t appear, so you have to feel yourself around). Using a bluetooth keyboard might work better. Thankfully, you only have to do this one time, and after that it will know where your games are located.
• Frontends like Daijisho can be installed, but won’t be able to launch RetroArch games for some reason. I’ve mostly just been launching the individual apps and running the games from there.
• Some emulators and cores can be installed but will crash when you try and launch a game. For example, the RetroArch Flycast core will crash when you start a game, and the standalone Mupen64Plus FZ app will crash as well. Redream is a Dreamcast emulator that works pretty well, but has severe graphical issues with many games.

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Changelog

06MAR2024
– published guide